Tag Archives: Sketching

Sketching Animals That Don’t Move

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What could be better for a sketcher than a place where there are hundreds of animals that don’t move.  Daniel Chagnon, an organizer for the Le Collectif des ateliers libres en arts visuels de Québec (CALAVQ) organized an event at la Fédération québécoise
​des chasseurs et pêcheurs.  This is a bit outside the domain of CALAVQ, which is primarily a portraiture group, but Daniel has been organizing more and more of these events and it’s very exciting to see.

I didn’t know that the Quebec hunters and fishermen had a museum/training center but this place is incredible for those of us scrambling to find winter sketching places.  It’s a bit of a drive but access is free, though they appreciate donations.  There is a lunch room with microwaves, vending machines, etc. AND several hundred taxidermy specimens just waiting to be drawn.  The hard part was deciding what to draw and being satisfied even though you didn’t get to draw everything.

There were a dozen of us sketching in the building and a lot of sketches were produced.  I found myself drawing too quickly and I was a bit disappointed in that.  I sometimes get ahead of my skis and it shows up in the results.  My attempt at drawing a wolf is a case in point.  I blocked it in quickly (ie too quickly and I got one foot in the wrong place.  I drew the eye incorrectly, tried to correct it, only making it worse.  Still, it looked like a wolf, sort of.  You might notice that it’s not displayed here 🙂

Stillman & Birn Beta (8×10), PLatinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black

I moved onto the wildfowl area and drew this elegant bufflehead.  Here I bumped into my watercolor ineptitude and had trouble obtaining a really dark black, but I was generally happy with the result.  Robert Bateman I am not.

After lunch I decided that since I’d drawn fur and feathers that it was time to draw a fish.  I like the small vignette surrounding this one.   Striped bass used to be common to the stretch of the St. Lawrence River around Quebec but they had nearly disappeared until the fishing and hunting organization started a program to build up their populations.  They are being grown and planted along the river and fishing regulations prohibit the taking of this fish.  From what I could read, the program is making good progress towards their reintroduction.

I slowed down just a bit, partly because of my early morning lesson and partly because I was just getting tired.  I think the result was more in tune with my norm…only a few mistakes (grin).  Thanks to CALAVQ and particularly Daniel for organizing this event and introducing us to the museum.  We’re heading back here on Tuesday.

 

Our Tuesday Group Hosted By Hubert Langevin

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Stillman & Birn Alpha (8.5×5.5), Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black

I’m really behind in my posting but this event is so old that it’s starting to show up in the history books.  Way back when, about a week and a half ago, Hubert Langevin invited us to sketch at his house.  As a  big storm was predicted and we got to watch the snow going sideways through the large windows of his house as we drew objects Hubert had placed around for that purpose.  There were seven of us and we spent the day sketching, laughing and eating marvelous vegetable soup and fresh bread.  Lisette brought date bars for dessert.

I started sketching this smallish (15-20cm) clay woman.  She was so cute, even though she lacked a face.   Then I watched the snow fall, talked with everyone too much (I must drive them crazy) and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Then I sat down to draw a set of teacups set out as a still life.  We broke for lunch and then, with belly full, I returned to sketching tea cups, spoons and napkins.  My intent was to simply do a shaded contour drawing but somehow I got dragged down the rabbit hole of drawing all the decorations on the cups.  This was a lot of fun and not nearly as hard as one would suppose.  I hope you like it.  Thanks to Hubert for hosting us.

Stillman & Birn Alpha (8.5×5.5), Platinum 3776, Platinun Carbon Black

Sketchcrawling With USK Montreal

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I’m going to keep this short because we’re experiencing really low barometric pressure which is giving me a horrible arthritis attack in my knees and hands.  I’ll also apologize for the typos because my typing is being affected…bigly.

But last Sunday I was in heaven.  I met Marc Holmes for coffee before the event and when we arrived at the Pointe-à-Callière museum there were 30 or so sketchers waiting for the place to open.  The goal for the day was to sketch the Asian exhibition and it was a doozy.

The exhibit is on two floors and I probably should have made a quick run around to inventory things but I just started sketching these small clay figures.  They were simple, crude, and I managed to make them even more so when I went out in hall and tried to paint them while standing.  I was at least a couple of hands short for that exercise.

Stillman & Birn Beta, Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon

I did those quickly, all the time thinking of heading upstairs in search of something better to draw.  The second floor had one display of larger statues, a bunch of pottery, kimonos, and a couple samurai suits.  I decided to draw a couple of the larger statue artifacts.  Those were fun but I really hope that some day I’ll get better at drawing while standing.

Stillman & Birn Beta, Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon

The area around the samurai suits was pretty crowded so I decided to draw a piece of pottery.  Then I went outside and found Marc creating a masterpiece.  Watching work with watercolors is always a treat.  I never did add color to my pottery.

We only had 20 minutes left so we went back in and I decided to take that time to read about some of the smaller pieces which were at the other end of the first-floor room from where I had done my first page.  That’s when I saw it… a large door into yet another room.  Dare I say this was where thek really good stuff was?  Large buddah’s statues of all sorts, large busts of Asian characters.  Wow…and me with only a few minutes left before we were to rendevous for lunch and show-n-tell.  I quickly drew one of the heads, using pencil this time.  Yet another skill I need to work on.

We met for lunch and passed sketchbooks around.  USK Montreal has a lot of talented people among its ranks and it was fun seeing their results.  This day was pretty special to me and I hope to return for some of their future sketchcrawls.  Thanks, Marc, for organizing the event.

Native Americans Wear Cool Boots

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Due to lots of snow removal, going to sketchrawls, and general winter sloth, I am once again behind in my blogging.  This sketch was done at the Musee de la Civilisation last Tuesday, I think.  I like it a lot, mostly because I really enjoyed getting caught up in the detail of these beautiful boots.  I hope you agree.  I also hope I can get caught up ‘real soon’, like that’s gonna happen (grin).

First Nations Boots

Stillman & BIrn Beta (8×10) softcover, Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black

Follow Up To My Extreme Sketching Post

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I’ve had a couple people worried about my fingers after I did my extreme sketching post, or maybe they were worried about their fingers if they tried this craziness.  In any case I wanted to mention something that should have been in the original post.

In previous years I’ve tried various glove solutions for winter sketching and have never found anything that works.  This has included all manner of fingerless gloves, gloves where I’d cut just thumb and one finger tip off the glove, thin leather gloves – you name it; I’ve probably tried it.

I see the problem as two fold.  First is that you need something that allows you to have a good feel when there’s a pen in your hand and you also want something warm enough to keep your hands warm and ready to start sketching if you’re walking around like I do.  These two things are incompatible with one another.

My “solution” came when I started having arthritis problems in my hands.  A friend bought me a set of gloves designed for those so inflicted.

When he gave them to me I thought “sure…like those are going to help.”  In truth, they might help a little with my arthritis but not much.  But they have interesting virtues that other fingerless gloves do not have.

  • They are thin and made of an elastic material designed to compress your hand/muscles somewhat as you wear them while doing normal routine things.  They also have seams so placed that they don’t get in the way of doing those routines.  Because of this goal, they fit tighter/better than anything else I’ve tried.  This, of course, comes at a price – they cost about $20.
  • Because these gloves are so thin and hold tight to your hand everywhere, I can slide them into my normal winter gloves.

Notice how these two things line up with the problems I’ve mentioned.  The thin, fingerless nature of these gloves allow good control of the pen and being able to pull gloves on over them makes it easy to keep my hands warm while I walk.

As I said, these aren’t a perfect solution.  When it’s -20C, no thin glove is going to keep your hands warm, but they do keep the wind off your skin, which is a big deal when it’s this cold.  I wouldn’t want to rely upon them for a 15-min sketch but for a 5-min sketch, they’re perfect.  I wear one on my pen hand only and hold the book with my right, fully gloved hand, which isn’t great but it beats losing my fingers to the cold (grin).